Caracas will use all legal means available to protect its assets in Europe and the US from illegal seizure, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told RT. She also spoke about the self-proclaimed 'president' Juan Guaido.

In an exclusive interview with RT, Rodriguez said the Venezuelan government has already taken "concrete legal steps" to claim back the assets of which it was "robbed" by the US and which have been frozen by European banks.

It was reported earlier that the Bank of England had blocked Venezuela's attempts to retrieve $1.2 billion worth of gold in the nation's foreign reserves. Venezuela's self-proclaimed and US-backed 'interim president' Juan Guaido hailed the move as the "protection" of the country's assets.

"We have hired lawyers to protect our interests, first and foremost, it concerns gold which has been unlawfully retained by the Bank of England," Rodriguez said.

The Venezuelan VP also said that Caracas would mount a legal defense against the US move to freeze $7 billion of assets belonging to the state-owned PDVSA oil and natural gas giant and its US subsidiary Citgo.

We have also taken steps for the legal protection of Venezuela. I'm talking about the theft of Venezuela's assets committed by the US. Venezuela has the right to protect its legal interests.

Washington plans to hand over the frozen assets to Guaido, who in turn vowed to appoint an alternative board of directors for the companies.

Speaking of the recently announced decision to move PDVSA's European headquarters from Lisbon to Moscow, Rodriguez called the transfer "rather timely" and in line with Venezuela's expanded cooperation with Russian oil and gas industry. Rodriguez said that in addition to the European HQ, other PDVSA affiliates would relocate to Russia as well.